Jordan Rising Reviews Walle-E

I'll admit it. I love Pixar. I suppose it's not really uncool anymore for a 28 year old man to enjoy cartoons, since Pixar has elevated the dualistic grown-up-jokes-within-a-kids-cartoon thing to an art form.

But I really love Pixar. I buy their films, and sometimes watch them again.

Wall-E was a bit of a departure for Pixar, and from the outset, I want to say that my opinion of Pixar, if not entirely this movie, remains overwhelmingly positive. I say this because of Pixar's refusal to rest on their laurals. With the success of films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, it would be easy for them to shift into neutral and pump out 10 or 12 films similar in plot, tone and character.

With Wall-E, it's evident they did no such thing.

As you've no doubt read, the striking thing about this film is the lack of human voices throughout the film. In fact, aside from a few clever advertisements, human beings don't even enter the film until the latter part of the second act, and even then, are regulated to buffoonish side characters for the most part.

No, the majority of the movie's character interaction is done through a complicated series of beeps, clicks and robotic sounds, as well as robotic facial expressions . . . well, as close as you can get.

My overall impression was that this film was very, very ambitious, and resulted in a less accessible effort than their previous films. Pixar tried something very difficult; create a major animated work without the strength of voice acting. I applaud their attempt, and I believe that they did as well as modern animation would allow them to do.

The movie didn't allow me to immerse myself totally as other Pixar films have, and my young nephews and niece struggled to stay engaged during the middle of the film. However, the experience itself is very rewarding, and I found myself constantly chortling about how they'd accomplished getting across the intent of the characters without speaking. In fact, that's kind of the whole point. Little Wall-E CAN'T talk or express himself as he'd like, and for that we find a kind of kinship.

A worthy film, but you'll have to work for it.